Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, his body drained of blood according to an autopsy expert. Picture: AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File

Crime

Gruesome new detail on Khashoggi killing

by New York Post

24th Nov 2018 6:25 AM

A Saudi autopsy expert who was part of a hit team that killed Jamal Khashoggi used forensic know-how - along with syringes and scalpels - to dismember the journalist's body, according to a report that provides new details about the gruesome procedure.

According to the New York Post, Dr Salah al-Tubaigy, head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics, handled the implements that the 15-member kill squad brought into Istanbul, where they ambushed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate on October 2, according to Turkey's HurriyetDaily News.

Dr Salah al-Tubaigy is implicated in the disappearance and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. Picture: Supplied

"Khashoggi's body was undressed, Dr Tubaigy drew blood from his veins and let it flow into the bathroom sink. It was also Tubaigy who dismembered the body," the outlet reported, citing the Daily Sabah.

"Tubaigy was trained in forensics at the University of Glasgow, and a short while ago he had introduced his own project at a seminar in Australia, which was about a mobile autopsy device," the newspaper added.

The Daily Sabah has reported that an audio recording captured Khashoggi's murder after the Saudis covered the floor of Saudi Consul Mohammed al-Otaibi's office with plastic sheets before cutting up his body.

The Saudi hit team also used coagulants to stop the bleeding during the dismemberment, according to Hurriyet.

The kingdom originally said Khashoggi - a vocal critic of the government - left the consulate alive.

But the Saudi government later admitted that he was strangled after a fistfight.

By late October, Saudi Arabia's Attorney-General said he believed Khashoggi's killing was "premeditated."

Dr Tubaigy, who also works for the Saudi Interior Ministry, was identified by an anonymous source as telling others in his team to put on headphones while he chopped up the body.

"When I do this job, I listen to music," he reportedly said.

This story first appeared in the New York Post and is republished with permission.